Saeed Naqvi | Pro-Nationalism, Anti-Globalisation: Trump’s Mantra Works in Europe

The traumatic turn the world order is taking in the Donald Trump era tends to make little sense unless, from the pandemonium, one sifts out a policy statement. Consider US vice-president J.D. Vance’s chastisement of Europe at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February. “Europe’s enemies are not Russia or China; the enemy is within”, he said. Europe was scared of its own people, its voters who were turning to parties the European establishment was averse to. He made a pointed reference to leaders who weren’t invited “to this very important conference”.

To demonstrate what he meant, Mr Vance went on to meet the leader of Alternative for Germany, the far-right anti-immigrant party which, before the recent German election, was advancing in the popularity stakes. All other disparate political parties come together to form a “wall” against the Alternative for Germany. This is precisely the manoeuvre to thwart the popular surge, according to Mr Vance. Readers may yawn as Mr Trump has churned the universe with a thousand decisions and indecisions that his next moment will reverse. But Mr Vance’s speech, mark my word, is a marker.

I have revisited the Munich Conference with a purpose: it was not a stand- alone outburst by Mr Vance. It was a continuation of a process started by Mr Trump’s ideological mentors and companions to undermine the European Union, promote “nationalism” in European nations and puncture the balloon of globalisation which weakens the nation state and, thereby, nationalism.

Terrifying tariffs as tactics in the new order were not spelt out as such in Mr Vance’s speech, which was heard by a hall packed with European grandees with open-mouthed wonder. It was not an off-the-cuff statement. Mr Trump’s principal philosopher and friend Steven Bannon, never mind if he served a brief jail term, had been criss-crossing Europe since at least the first Trump presidency meeting, promoting, creating a chain of far-right leaders, bringing them in line with what was to emerge in bright silhouette as Mr Trump’s project of remaking Europe as a fulcrum for the new world.

It was all clear as daylight from the start but you didn’t see it as the Western media, which the Indian media supinely follows, had switched off its cameras on the story. In 2016, it was in the thrall of Hillary Clinton, the front-runner against Mr Trump. For that reason, it was a target for “Russian interference” all through the 2016 campaign. How pulpy American democracy looked when the US Deep State was seen wringing its hands on Russians “effectively” interfering in the election to defeat Ms Clinton. And the media was swallowing these yarns hook, line and sinker.

Around 2013, there were two maestros with parallel agendas hopping from one European capital to the other promoting competing visions of the architecture that Western capitalism should create.

George Soros, the philanthropist, was on a contrary path. He was out to strengthen globalisation, the European Union in the liberal mode. He did everything possible to block Brexit. His “open society”, was not “closed” and circular; it leapt out of the stage like a ballet dancer.

Brexit produced panic headlines rather like the ones after Mr Trump’s tariffs. “A calamity”, said the New York Times. “Global panic” was the more moderate headline in London.

While Mr Soros lamented Brexit, Steve Bannon was delirious. The right-wing group he formally registered in Brussels in 2017 was named “The Movement”, a counter-point to Mr Soros’ Open Society.

Hungary’s Victor Orban, France’s Marine Le Pen, Italy’s Mateo Salvini, UK’s Nigel Farage, the Netherlands’ arch Euro sceptic Gaert Wilters and a host of others were enlisted.

Some of these leaders are a trifle hesitant because of “The Movement’s” American sponsorship. They see a clear contradiction. What kind of hybrid nationalism was being promoted in which Steve Bannon, an American, plays a key role. This issue is being sorted out, but the broad ideological line is consistent – anti-LGBTQ, anti-abortion, anti-immigrant and, strewn around the Bannon literature in very small print, “anti-Islamisation”. This last one will be brushed up to help remove the taint of genocide which has stuck on the faces of Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters in America and the US-Israeli lobby. The Alternative for Germany has most tenaciously latched onto this one ever since Angela Merkel, following her instincts as a vicar’s daughter, humanely opened the door to Syrian refugees fleeing the civil war inflicted on their country.

Donald Trump minced no words. His high-decibel MAGA chant was his anti-globalisation drive. Hare-brained takeovers of the Panama Canal, Greenland and Canada were preceded by an even sillier plan some years ago to “administer Afghanistan just as the British ran India under a viceroy”.

Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater, the world’s biggest supplier of mercenary soldiers, was behind that plan which, through Mr Bannon, reached the White House. The Pentagon shot it down.

“The hegemon is in decline; he is coming down like a falling star.” This tiresome chant was another irritant to cope with, on which MAGA came in handy. Before obituaries are written on the old world order, Mr Trump has decided to dig out the pitch and initiate a totally new game. There will be no reordering of the world order which, in his mind, is now extinct. He wants a new world in which the US is more equal than others.

From inside Fortress America, its walls ever higher, Mr Trump’s teams will got out to promote nationalism and smash regional or global groupings which are the stepping stones towards globalisation. The experience with Europe has been heady.

But wait a minute. Reports suggest that Mr Trump’s demolition work in Europe is causing several nation-states to re-cluster, and rapidly so.